Blackbird
by MadnessMantra
Summary: Season 1 AU- After receiving a mysterious warning, Dean rushes to Stanford. Uniting with Sam and Jess, he must discover the true reasons behind the sudden demon attacks before the three of them can become pawns in some ancient supernatural war. All the while, an invisible presence is watching, waiting...
1. Chapter 1

AN:

This is a season 1 AU, but several characters from later seasons will make an appearance. There will be spoilers for up to season 7. I don't even know how to explain the idea behind this, so I won't, but time travel is involved.

Going back and trying to get a hang of the characters season 1 voices was surprisingly difficult and I'm not sure how well I did. (They are all so different now!) Hopefully I did okay.

Anyway, enjoy-

* * *

Blackbird

Chapter 1

Rescue Mission

* * *

Dean winced as he pulled the large piece of shattered glass out of his forearm. He placed the piece of glass as quietly as he could on the concrete floor below him and risked a second glance over the ledge. No sign of the Jersey Devils. _At least not yet, _his brain unhelpfully commented. He was so screwed. It would have been one thing if there had been just one of the creatures, one he could handle. Two, maybe. But four? He needed help. But Dad had vanished seemingly into thin air and Sam was off at Stanford, so here he was, all on his lonesome, facing off against a pack of Jersey Devils.

_I can't believe that I'm not even going to get killed by one of the cool monsters._

He shook the thought out of his head. He could do this, he had already killed one of the things, and so long as the rest of them didn't attack all at once he should be fine. He stilled his breathing. He could hear scuttling in the next room. He peeked over the ledge and saw one sniffing through some boxes. And damn it, no matter how many times he saw them he couldn't get over how ridiculous the things looked. If there was ever irrevocable proof of the non-existence of God, it was the Jersey Devil. Any deity that would create a creature with a goats head, bat wings and tiny T-Rex like claws did not deserve to be worshiped.

He gripped the iron rod tighter, reading himself. In one smooth motion he leaped over the ledge and drove the rod into the Jersey Devils chest.

_Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream._

The thing started to scream.

That was another thing that he hated about the Jersey Devils. Their screams could be heard for miles and had the unfortunate effect of drawing any other Jersey Devil in the area to your exact location. Dean cursed, drawing the rod out of the creature as it died.

_Two down, two to go._

The other two appeared quickly, drawn by the screams of their fallen comrade. They attacked as one and Dean lost himself in a frenzied battle with the things. The little buggers were _fast_ and he was struggling to keep up, exhausted and injured from his previous battles. The one on his left rammed him, and Dean felt the definite crack of one, maybe two ribs breaking. He jammed his weapon through the creatures' neck, killing it instantly.

The final Jersey Devil screamed in rage, charging him. Dean barely had time to pull the iron rod out of the fallen Jersey devils neck before the thing was on him, biting and scratching at him with its little T-Rex arms.

"Get off of me!" Dean shouted, driving the rod through the creatures' chest. The Jersey Devil gave one last blood-curdling scream- _right in my freaking ear_- and died.

Dean stood up, ears still ringing. He looked down at the dead, ridiculous looking creatures and then at himself- he was covered in monster blood, had at least two broken ribs, there was still shattered glass in his left forearm and he thinks that his eardrums might have shattered.

"Today sucks." He grumbled, shuffling off to the Impala. Yesterday had sucked too. In fact, pretty much every day had sucked since his dad had decided to up and disappear without so much as an explanation. Scratch that, every day had sucked since Sam had walked out on them for Stanford years ago. But it hadn't been so bad when Dad was there too. It was still the family business when there were two members of the family hunting together. Dean wasn't sure what it was now. Nothing good, though.

He collapses into his motel room, putting his bloodied cloths into a pile. He'll have to throw them away later. Now he needs to sleep, or maybe watch something on TV- something relaxing to distract himself from the fact that he almost just got killed by the one of the most ridiculous looking monsters ever and that his already small family was falling apart. But, _of course_, nothing good was on and even though he was exhausted as all hell he couldn't seem to get to sleep.

He pulled out his phone.

He stared at it for a long time, running an all too familiar argument through his head. _I should call Sam, _one part of him would say, _It's been years since we've talked and I need to check up on him._ And then the rational part of him would shut the idea down, remind him that Sam wanted nothing to do with him or with hunting, and that he had gone off to live a normal life and he wasn't coming back. And then he would always put the phone away and pretend that the mental battle had never happened.

Except that he didn't this time.

Because _damn it_, Dad was gone now too, and it had been _days_ without so much as an explanation or anything, and Dean was apparently not very good at being on his own.

He decided to try calling his Dad. He needed to at least talk to the one person left in his family who still wanted to talk to him.

Except that he didn't pick up.

Dean didn't leave a message, just hung up and told himself that he was just on a hunt, that he would call back.

As if on cue, his phone started to ring. Dean answered it almost instantly.

"Dad?"

"What?" The confused sounding voice of a stranger answered.

Dean hit his head against the headboard of the bed. "Sorry. Thought you were someone else. Who is this?"  
"Look, I… this is probably a big mistake. I- I can't believe that I actually called, you probably think that I'm insane, but is there any chance that… Is there a Dean Winchester there?"  
"Yes, this is Dean Winchester. Who are you?"  
"No." The strangers voice whispered. "That's… that's not possible." Dean heard what sounded like broken laughter followed by the _always_ reassuring words- "Oh my God, I'm going insane."

Dean glared at his phone, really not in the mood to deal with this stranger and his obvious mental health issues. "How did you get this number?"

"The voice… There was this voice, it kept telling me that I had to call this number specifically and warn Dean Winchester about the 'dangers to come' or something. But there's no way you're really real, is there? I'm probably really just talking to static or something and this is all in my head, right?"

Dean narrowed his eyes, suddenly on alert. "What kind of voice?"

"Don't you already know? I mean, you're just as much a figment of my imagination as it is, aren't you? Oh, God, I need help."  
"No." Dean said, all business. "I'm real, and whatever was talking to you knew my name and my phone number, which means that it's real too. Now I need to know what it is and what it said."

The man on the other end of the phone gave a frightened sounding whimper and Dean really wished that Sam was there- he was always much better at talking with civilians.

Suddenly, there was this strange ringing static like sound over the line and the man gave a painful sounding cry.

"What was that? Are you okay?"  
"I'm fine- The voice was just talking. It says that there isn't much time… danger…" Dean winced as static roared in his ear.

"I didn't catch that, what did you just say?"

"It says that someone named Sam is in danger. Demons are coming after him."

Dean nearly dropped the phone.

* * *

Dean tried calling his Dad again as soon as he hung up and got his voicemail again. "Dad, listen. I think Sam's in trouble. Call me when you get this message and I can explain."

After he hung up he dialed Sam for the first time in what felt like forever. He drummed his fingers nervously along the steering wheel as he listened to the phone ring. Sam wasn't picking up. Dean pressed down on the accelerator and drove.

It was two days and over thirty unanswered calls to Sam before Dean finally arrived at Stanford. It was no understatement to say that by this point Deans nerves were shot to Hell. He had barely slept or ate since receiving that mysterious call, and he had just driving through six states with nothing but nightmare scenarios of what could have happened to Sam running though his head.

He walks up to Sams apartment, knocks on the door.

"Coming!" A females voice calls out from inside, and the door opens to reveal a pretty blond woman behind it.

"Uh, I'm sorry- I'm looking for Sam."

She smiled. "Well you've come to the right place. I'm his girlfriend Jessica- he just stepped out to go to the store a little while ago."  
"I kind of needed to talk to him now, and he hasn't been answering my calls."

"Yeah." The girl said, not sounding too concerned about it. "His phone kind of… exploded two days ago, and he hasn't gotten a new one yet. He should be back any minute if you want to wait?"  
"That would be great." Dean said, breathing a silent sigh of relief at the knowledge that Sam hadn't been horrifically murdered on his drive to Palo Alto.

"What did you say your name was?"  
"It's Dean."  
The girl froze. "You're Sam's brother?" She exclaimed, and Dean was suddenly hit with the fear that Sam had told his girlfriend that he did not want to be contacted by his crazy, monster-hunting family. The fear was quickly alleviated, however, when Jessica broke into a big smile, and opened the door of the apartment wider. "Come on in, wait inside, I've got so many questions for you."

She sat him down on a cheap looking but comfortable couch and brought out a plate of cookies.

"Sam never tells me anything about his childhood. You _have_ to tell me some stories."

"I'm not sure if…"  
"Please! I need blackmail material, here!"

Dean choked back a laugh. Despite himself, he was starting to like this girl- it looked like Sam had done all right. "Fine. But in exchange, you have to tell me what he's been up to these past four years."

"Deal."

"Did you know that he's terrified of clowns?"

"What, no way! He never told me that."  
"Probably just embarrassed. I mean, I can see why- of all the things he could have been afraid of, he had to pick the most ridiculous."  
"Well, every fear is a little silly if you think about it long enough. What are you afraid of?"  
"Howler monkeys." Dean lied smoothly.

"And you don't think that's a little ridiculous?"  
"Are you kidding me? Have you seen one of those things?" Dean said. "Freaking terrifying."

"You know what I'm afraid of?"  
"What?"  
"The inevitable heat death of the universe."  
Dean blinked. Jessica stared at him solemnly for a solid minute before suddenly breaking into a smile.

"I'm kidding, geeze. It's actually sharks."  
"Sharks?"

"Look, I saw Jaws when I was a kid and it kind of traumatized me. It's a lot less weird then being afraid of howler monkeys."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of shuffling at the front door as Sam entered.

"Hey, Jess, they didn't have any Twizzlers at the convenience store…" He froze mid sentence as he caught sight of Dean sitting on his sofa. "Dean?" He asked, stunned. "What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk? It's important."

A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting on a park bench outside the apartment. Dean wasn't sure what to make of Sams expression- he definitely didn't look mad, just kind of confused and more then a little concerned.

_As he should be._

"Look, Sam, I know that this is going to sound crazy, but I got this call a couple of days ago from some guy- I'd never met him before but he knew my number and my name and he knew about you. And he said that you were in danger, that demons were coming after you or something."

Sam raised an eyebrow and for the first time Dean realized just how ridiculous the story sounded.

"Some guy told you demons were after me and you just… believed him?"  
"Look, I kind of flipped out when you weren't answering your phone."

Sam winced. "Yeah, the thing kind of - exploded. I was picking pieces of it out of the apartment for hours."  
"Wait, it _literally_ exploded? When was this?"

"Uh- Thursday."

Dean narrowed his eyes. "That's the same day I got the call saying you were in danger. Don't you think that's a little too weird to be a coincidence?"  
Sam frowned. "You're right, that does seem pretty weird." He looked up. "You think that something supernatural is going on, don't you?"

"I definitely think that something supernatural is going on."

"Do you really think that it's demons? I mean, do you really trust phone guy?"

Dean frowned. Against all reason he actually did trust phone guy- the dude had seemed to be just the right blend of desperate skepticism and fearful confusion to be an innocent messenger of some unexplained supernatural voice. But that didn't mean that he trusted whatever entity that was speaking to or through him. "I don't think that we should eliminate the possibility. Or any possibility. Not until we figure out what's going on. Have you noticed anything else weird going on these past couple of days?"

"Yeah. There was this really weird campus-wide black out about a week ago- all the lights blew out at once. They said that it was an electrical shortage, but I'm not so sure anymore."

"Anything else?"  
"Not that I know of, no."

"Okay. Then I'll investigate and see if there are any other clues, try and figure out what's going on."  
"I'll help." Sam declared.

"Really?" Dean asked. "I thought that you had quit for good."  
"Jess and my friends are here, Dean. If there is some kind of monster here then I have to protect them from it."

Dean grinned, unable to keep his excitement at the process of going on a hunt with his younger brother off of his face. He clapped his hands together excitedly. "Awesome. Let's do this!"


	2. Chapter 2

Blackbird

Chapter 2: Bad Company

* * *

"Dean, you are way too excited about this."

"Aw, come on, Sammy! It's a college Halloween party! Sorority girls in skimpy outfits, beer, free candy. It's pretty much a perfect storm of awesomeness."  
"You know, when you said you wanted to investigate what was going on at this school I kind of thought that we would be doing more actual investigating."

"Hey, if you want to figure out what's going on, we're going to need to interview witnesses, see if there have been any other incidents. This just happens to be the best way to do it."

"Right, so you don't have any ulterior motives."

"I never said that." Dean scoffed. "Now which costume do you think I should get, zombie or werewolf?"  
Sam rolled his eyes and walked away. Dean decides to go with zombie.

Jessica is waiting near the front of the costume shop. "I picked mine out. Are you guys ready?"  
"I am. Sammy hasn't picked anything yet."  
"I told you that I'm not dressing up. And quit calling me Sammy."

Jessica pouted. "But Sam, it's a costume party! Everyone else is going to be dressed up."  
"I'll pass, sorry."

Dean could see that Jessica wasn't going to push any further so he decided to step in. "Come on, Sam, it'll be fun. You could go as a doctor since your girlfriend is going as a sexy nurse, make it a couples costume."  
"Ooh, yeah, that_ would_ be fun!" Jessica agreed eagerly.

Sam flushed and looked at the floor.

Bingo. They had him sold.

* * *

The Halloween party was in full swing, and Dean was really enjoying himself. He could definitely see the appeal of this place- though judging by Sam's judging glare, his brother did not share his appreciation of the finer things. He wondered if Sam was just allergic to fun or something. It certainly would explain why he had always been so sullen.

Dean slid next to a brown haired girl in a Wonder Woman costume. "So how about that blackout a couple days ago? Crazy, right?"

She didn't give him any new information about the case, but she did give him her number so he marked that conversation as a win. He was about to go and brag to Sam about it when he saw a lamp near the drink table flicker.

He walked over to investigate, but there was no EMF, no smell of sulfur or any signs of anything supernatural. "Faulty wiring maybe?" He muttered under his breath. No sooner had the words escaped his lips then did the lamp explode in a flash of sparks. The party guests around it jumped and then immediately passed it off as nothing with a bit of nervous laughter but Dean was on high alert now.

_Damn it. This was supposed to be information gathering only._ Most of his supplies were still in the trunk of the Impala. He had his dads journal, of course, but not many weapons. At the moment, he only had a hidden silver knife, a hand gun, and a small flask of holy water on him, he wasn't ready for a supernatural confrontation, especially when he didn't know what he was up against.

_A demon._ He remembered the voice from the telephone saying. _A demon is coming for Sam._

Acting more on impulse then anything, he poured the holy water into the punch bowl, hoping that, should they need it, it would give them a bit more ammunition to use against the thing if the man on the phone's bizarre prediction turned out to be true. He needed to warn Sam, tell him that something else might be here.

_A demon- how do you kill a demon?_

As far as he knew, you didn't. Exorcising the thing was the best you could do, but demons were so rare that he had never bothered to learn an actual exorcism, and he doubted that Sam knew one either. However…

He flipped through his dad's journal. Sure enough, tucked between the entries about Windegos and Shifters were the words to an exorcism chant. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

Now to find Sam and figure out what to do next.

* * *

Sam was, naturally, laughing with a group of his friends when Dean found him. Jessica stood beside him, laughing right along with him. The sight caused a brief flash of some unnamable emotion to stir within Dean. He hadn't seen Sam look this happy since- Hell, he couldn't even remember when. As much as he hated to admit it, it looked like Sam actually had managed to make a life for himself here, one that let him have friends, a girl that he was obviously head over heels in love with, and the possibility of a job that didn't end in bloody death. This life- it suited him. Even if it didn't suit Dean.

_There's no place for you here._

Dean pushed the thought down and walked over. There was still work to do, he could fall apart later.

"Hey, Sam!" He called, walking over to the small group of people.  
He saw Sam roll his eyes, apparently annoyed that Dean had interrupted him mid sentence. "Dean- These are my friends, Mike and Brady."  
One of the friends, Brady, apparently, broke into a smile. "Oh, so _you're_ Dean. I've heard a lot about you."  
"Good things, I hope." Dean laughed before turning to Sam. "Hey, could I talk to you for a second?"  
"Oh, sure." Sam said, breaking away from his group of friends.

"I guess I'll just finish telling you that story later then!" Brady called. Mike laughed and said something about getting drinks for everybody.

As soon as Sam was out of the groups earshot he became immediately serious. "What's up?"  
"I think something's here."  
"What, now? Are you sure?"  
"Of course I'm not sure! But I just saw a lamp freaking explode next to the drink table, and considering all the other weird electrical shortages that have been going on around here, I'd say that it's a strong possibility."  
"Crap." Sam said, summing up the situation concisely. "What do we do?"

"I don't know, man, we don't have much equipment and we have no idea what we're up against. But I think that our first priority has to be getting all these people out of here."

"How are we going to do that?"  
Dean looked around, eyes eventually settling on the sprinkler system installed on the ceiling. "We could pull the fire alarm."  
"That's your plan?" Sam asked.

"Have you got any better ideas?"  
Sam paused. "Not really. All right, let's do it."

They never got a chance to though as at that precise moment an unearthly cry of pain was let out. Sam and Dean both turned towards the sound of the disturbance and saw that Brady had collapsed on the grounds. Mike was kneeling over him. "Hey, dude, are you okay?" He asked, sounding concerned.

Brady looked up, eyes black.

Dean was barely able to shout "Demon!" before Brady drove his hand through Mikes chest. Mike sputtered, coughing up blood before collapsing to the ground, a gaping cavity in his stomach. All around, the party dissolved into panicked screams, as the guests crawled over each other in their attempts to flee. The demon in Brady stood up slowly, impossibly calm amongst the chaos, his gaze cycling through Dean, Sam, and Jessica, who had collapsed in shock at his feet. Dean began to reach for the exorcism in his pocket, but Brady seemed to catch the movement, swinging an arm towards him and an invisible force knocked Dean off his feet and flung him across the room.

He hit the ground hard, breaking a couple of chairs along the way. The force didn't let up however, just kept pressing him against the floor, his arms stretched uselessly at his sides. He gritted his teeth, struggling as hard as he could, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't move.

It was around this point that Dean really realized just how bad this situation was. Demons were rare, and powerful, while Dean was unprepared, immobile and, basically, totally screwed.

"Now this is… inconvenient." The demon muttered, walking over to a stunned looking Sam.

"Get out of him." Sam growled. Brady just laughed.

"Or what? You'll exorcise me? You and I both know that you haven't been doing your homework. To busy playing _house_." At that last word, the demons eyes drifted lecherously towards Jessica. Sam looked like he was barely holding off the urge to tear the demon apart with his bare hands.

"Too busy even to notice that one of your closest friends had been possessed. It's been a long time, Sam. Over a year, with your friend screaming inside his head for help. You never did help though, did you? Didn't even notice that Brady wasn't in the drivers seat anymore."

"But… why?" Sam asked, and _damn it_ if his voice didn't sound broken. Full of guilt. Dean felt a sudden surge of anger. How dare that… _thing_ try and get Sam to blame himself for this.

The demon smiled. "My boss's orders. He just wanted me to watch you for a while. You're important Sam, you know that? So important, in ways that you can't even begin to understand."

The demon raised a hand, and Sam went flying into a nearby wall.

_Shit._ Dean thought. If he could just reach his pocket, then he might have a chance at exorcising this thing, but his hands might as well have been super glued to the floor.

The demon turned to Jessica, smile widening.

_Shit._

"I was really supposed to leave this message when you were sleeping, Sam. I wasn't planning on getting found out. I guess I'll just have to improvise now, won't I?"

Jessica went flying to the opposite wall, facing Sam. She looked at the demon, eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"How?" She whispered, in between panicked breaths. "What are you?"  
Brady made an expression that could have been mistaken for sympathetic if it hadn't been so twisted.  
"Poor thing. Didn't Sammy ever tell you about his past?"

"Leave her alone, you bastard!" Sam shouted something wild and desperate in his voice.

_Shit, this is my fault._ Dean realized, cold pit settling in his stomach.

"Didn't he ever tell you about his mother?" The demon cooed and Jessica began inching up the wall.

_No, no, no, don't let this happen. Don't let this happen again because of me. Shit, please, let me move, let me do something-_

"About how she died?"

Jessica was halfway up the wall.

Sam was shouting something incoherent.

_Please, I'm begging, please-_

As if in response, Dean felt a strange rumbling through the floor as a high pitched humming sound charged the air with electricity. Jessica stopped, mid ascent and the demon looked around, confused.

The lights all exploded as one, and in the brief shower of sparks that followed Dean could have sworn that he saw the demon jump. In the darkness, the noise grew louder and louder before being replaced by another, different ringing.

The sound of the fire alarm.

The sprinkler system above them activated. The demon in Brady screeched in agonizing pain, skin steaming under the water.

_Holy Water._ Dean realized._ Someone filled the sprinklers with freaking Holy Water._

And just like that, the demons hold on the three of them was released. Jessica collapsed back onto the floor and Sam was beside her in a heartbeat. Dean pulled the exorcism out of his pocket and started reading, knowing that this was the best and probably only opportunity that he was going to get.

The demon cried out, pain mixing with rage, yet he was unable to do anything to stop him in the unending onslaught of Holy Water. Thick black smoke burst from his mouth and he collapsed.

"What the Hell…" Dean muttered, not really understanding a single thing that had just happened. Sam and Jessica both looked at him, looking about as shaken and confused as he felt.

"How did that happen?" Sam asked, voice far softer then what Dean was used to.

Dean stared at his brother numbly, wishing that he had some sort of explanation. "I have no idea."


	3. Chapter 3

Blackbird

Chapter 3: Same Kind of Crazy

* * *

All things considered, Jessica was taking everything surprisingly well. Dean had seen grown men fall to pieces when they realized that monsters were real but she was holding herself together.

"That wasn't Brady was it?" She asked once they had all piled into the Impala- Sam had chosen to sit with her in the back seat, clearly afraid that she could still bust into flames at any minute.

"No, it was a demon."  
"A demon. Demons are real." She gave a small nod as she processed the information, and Dean was eternally grateful that she seemed to have skipped straight over the 'but this can't really be happening' phase and had just accepted the evidence in front of her almost immediately. "What else is real?"  
Dean shrugged, pulling onto the highway. "Pretty much everything. Werewolves, Shapeshifters, Ghosts- all sorts of things that go bump in the night. We- my dad and I- we hunt them. Sam used to too, but he quit to go to college."

"Why?"

"Hey, you're going to have to ask Sam that question, not me."  
"No, why would you hunt monsters? Isn't it dangerous?"

"Eh, sometimes." Dean shrugged, turning his attention back to the road. "But someone's got to do it."

Jessica fell silent after that so Dean put an ACDC cassette tape into the player and cranked up the volume. He could hear Sam whispering something to Jessica, probably trying to explain his screwed up childhood and Dean made a point of ignoring them. He drove for four hours before pulling into a motel outside of Carson City.

"All right. We all need to get some rest, there's going to be a long day of driving tomorrow."  
"Where are we going?" Sam asked, and Dean realizes that it's probably strange that he hasn't asked that sooner.

"Pontiac, Illinois."  
"Illinois? That's at least a three day drive- can't Dad just meet us halfway or something?"

Dean winced. Of course Sam would assume that they were going to meet with Dad. "About that…"

"What?"  
"Dad's not in Illinois."

"Dean, we need Dad's help on this one! That demon almost killed Jess!"

"I know! And I've tried to get ahold of Dad, believe me, but he's not answering his phone!"

Sams eyes immediately clouded with worry. Dean could see the gears turning in his brothers head and he didn't like where they were headed.

"Dean, do you think… Dad might be…"  
"Finish that sentence and I will kick your ass into next week, you hear me Sammy? Dad's fine, he's just busy. You know how he is. He probably hasn't even heard my messages yet."

"But…"  
"But nothing, Sam. Right now, we need to focus on finding out what's going on."

"All right, then why are we going to Illinois?"

"I tracked phone guy's number there. And right now, figuring out how he knew what he knew is the best lead that we've got. So let's get some rest and start heading that way tomorrow, okay?"  
"Okay." Sam nodded quietly, eyes still full of sympathy. Dean had forgotten how annoying that could be.

* * *

Despite everything, Dean found that over the next couple of days the three of them had fallen into a comfortable sort of pattern. Sam continued to insist on sitting in the back with Jessica despite the fact that he clearly needed the extra leg space. Jessica didn't complain about the long hours spent on the road or the seedy motels but instead had begun picking Sam and Dean's brains for information about monsters and how to kill them. Sam kept trying to tell her that there was really no need for her to get involved, that she would be perfectly safe once they figured out what was going on, but she never let the subject drop.

"This is part of your world, Sam. And like it or not, I'm a part of it now, so if I want to be able to protect myself then I need to know what's out there." And just like that the conversation had been over. Dean had to admit, he really admired the girl for that. And the longer he spent with her, the more that it became obvious that she was good for Sam. He was happier with her around, more relaxed.

Dean was happy for him, he really was.

But every once in a while, during the long hours driving, he found himself glancing at the empty passenger seat next to him and felt a twinge of something almost like jealously. He couldn't tell whether he was jealous of Jessica for having Sam or of Sam for have found someone that he could actually settle down with. He pushed it down, focused on the road and turned the music up too loud, smiling just slightly to himself when Sam started complaining.

* * *

They made it to Pontiac on Monday morning, and Dean parked the Impala across from a neatly manicured suburban lawn.

"You sure this is the right place? Doesn't exactly have the haunted house feel." Jessica said, peering out the window.

"It is a little Stepford though, don't you think?" Dean shot back, grinning.

Sam rolled his eyes. "So what's our cover?"  
"We don't have one. The dude already knows who we are, remember?"  
"So what, we're going to just go up to the guy and say 'hey, we're the ones that the invisible voice told you about, can we come in for tea?' Yeah, I can see that going over well."  
"Stay positive." Dean said, ringing the doorbell. An exhausted looking man in a rumpled suit opened the door.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam and his girlfriend Jessica. We spoke on the phone earlier."

The man stared blankly at Dean, blinking his blue eyes a few times before shaking his head. "I need to up the dosage on my medication…" he muttered before shutting the door in Deans face.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, banging on the door. "We need to talk to you!"

"You're not real. I'm having a nervous breakdown and you're a hallucination." The mans voice shouted through the closed door.

"I assure you that I am very real. Now open this door before I kick it in!"  
"Dean!" Sam shouted, giving him a look that quite clearly said 'you are a Neanderthal and I can't believe that I am related to you' before turning to the door and making one of his patented 'sympathetic Sam' expressions. "Look, I'm sure that this is confusing for you. And I get that you're scared, I really do. But we really need your help."

There was no response. Sam turned to Dean. "What's his name?"  
"Huh?"  
"His name. What is it?"  
Dean opened his mouth to answer and realized that he honestly didn't know.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "Seriously?"  
"Look, it never came up, all right? The dude just said 'oh, there's a mysterious voice talking to me and Sam's in danger', I might have skipped the formal introduction stage."

Sam shot him a particularly powerful bitchface.

"Let me try." Jessica said suddenly, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like '_boys' _under her breath.

"Excuse me, sir? My name is Jessica Moore. I know how crazy all of this sounds, but all of this is real. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself, but demons really did attack Sam- I can only imagine what would have happened if you hadn't warned Dean when you did. The truth of the matter is, the three of us are just as scared and confused as you are, but if you let us in, we can all try and figure this out together, all right?"

The door opened a crack, and the man peered out with weary eyes. "I just want my life to go back to normal." He said in a small voice.

"I know." Jessica smiled sympathetically. "We're here to help."

The man opened the door.

Dean glanced at Sam. "What do you know, the girls a natural." He muttered, ignoring Sam's annoyed glare.

* * *

The man, who had introduced himself as Jimmy, poured all of them coffee.

"It first started a week or so ago." He said, sounding exhausted. "I was at work the first time it happened. All the lights in the office, they all suddenly exploded and I just collapsed. My coworkers thought that I was having a seizure." Jimmy gave a tired laugh. "And then it just didn't stop. It kept telling me 'Sam Winchester is in danger, you must call Dean Winchester and warn him'. Over and over again- it didn't stop until I did what it said. Once I did, the voice was just gone. My wife, she-" The man paused, a painful hitch in his voice. "She took our daughter to her mothers. Just for a little while, she said, just until I get help…"

"Don't worry." Sam said, sympathetically. "Whatever this thing is, we're going to figure it out. Dean and I- our family deals with stuff like this all the time, and we're going to take care of it."  
Dean felt a slight smile appear on his face at that. _'Our family'_, Sam had said- despite the long separation, despite the seemingly never ending shouting match between Sam and their father, Sam still considered himself part of the family.

"Tell us more about the voice. Did it say anything else?" Dean asked, getting back to the matter at hand.

"There was one other thing- but I don't think you guys are going to like it."  
Jessica raised her eyebrows as if to say _'well crap'_.

"We're listening."

"I was… trying to ignore it, and there was a moment when it got… I don't know, emotional, almost. It said that if I didn't call you, there would be consequences- terrible consequences."  
"It threatened you?"  
"No, it was more like… a really urgent warning. That the demons had plans that could not be allowed to succeed or something. And I don't know why, but they all seem to center around you."

Dean and Sam exchanged nervous glances. Jimmy had been right- they didn't like it at all.

* * *

"I think I've got a theory." Sam said as soon as the motel door shut behind him.

"Good, because I have no idea what the hell is going on." Dean said, glancing back at his brother. Sam suddenly avoided his gaze and stared at the floor as the motel filled with expectant silence.

"Care to share with the rest of the class, Sam?"

"So say that there's some kind of… supernatural war going on- demons versus… whatever it was that was talking to Jimmy. I mean, we know that the demons were after me- but it wasn't like they just wanted to kill me or anything- that demon had been possessing Brady for a year, and he wasn't doing any of that random chaos and destruction that demons are usually responsible. I think it's safe to say that there was some kind of plan behind it all."

"What are you getting at?"  
"I've been having these nightmares, Dean. At least I thought they were nightmares at first, but now I think they might have been more like visions. In the most recent one, Jessica was burning on the ceiling, just like mom. I mean, it's obvious that that's what Brady was trying to…" Sam's voice trailed off, and Jessica placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"So what, you're some kind of psychic?"  
"All I know is that whatever the demons plans are, I'm connected to them somehow. And maybe Jimmy is… I don't know, connected to something else in the same way. Something that doesn't want the demons plans to succeed."

Dean had to admit, it made a weird sort of sense. That didn't mean he had to like it. "So what? We're all just pawns in some sort of supernatural death match?"

"It's the only explanation that makes sense, Dean."

Dean cursed because damn it, Sam had a point.

"So basically, we now have not just one but two overpowered supernatural forces trying to screw around with our lives. That's just lovely."  
"Hey, at least one of them seems to be on our side."  
"Sam, hate to break it to you, but monsters are never on our side! If it helped us it just means that it needs us for something, and I can guarantee that whatever that something is, it's not good."

"You don't know that!" Sam protested.

"Yes I do!"  
"Boys!" Jessica shouted, ending the argument. "Can we maybe discuss what we're going to do now?"

Sam and Dean both looked at her. Dean had almost forgotten that she was still there. "Well, first things first, we're going to need to get you somewhere safe."  
Jessica raised an eyebrow, as if in challenge.

Sam immediately stepped in between them. "Look, Jessica, he's right. Whatever's going on, it's way to dangerous."  
"I know that it's dangerous. But you're crazy if you think that I'm going to let you do it alone."  
Dean grimaced. "Look, the show of support is nice, it really is, but it's looking like we're going to be going after some pretty big fish here. There isn't really any room for amateurs."

Jessica crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes, and started reciting the exorcism chant from memory.  
"What the- when did you learn that?"

"During the car ride." She said, smiling slightly. "So yeah, maybe I don't have any experience with this sort of stuff, but everybody has to start somewhere, right? And I'm a really fast learner."  
Sam winced. "Are you sure? This life- it's not exactly easy."  
Dean looked up. Holy crap, the dude was actually considering it. "Seriously, Sam?"

Jessica nodded. "Sam, I love you. And if this is your life then I want to be a part of it, whatever that takes."

Sam nodded mutely.

_Looks like she's going to actually be sticking around…_


End file.
